Chapter Text
The Mighty Nein had succeeded in their mission. On catching up with Lucien and Cree they’d had an intense battle, with heavy damage being inflicted on both sides. Spells flew through the air, while blades and bolts left splatters of crimson blood in their wake. Eventually, after what felt like a lifetime but was no more than a minute, Cree went down and without his tabaxi friend to heal him Lucien never stood a chance. All the fear, anger and stress the Nein had built up was released in a torrent of blows that left him riddled with holes. Not even the power of the Somnovum could save Lucien from that. Collapsing to the ground the Nein looked to each other. Where joy should have been only relief and exhausation was reflected back. And then after a couple of seconds a new emotion appeared on Veth’s face. Sheer, unadulterated panic.
‘Caleb!’.
…….
One day later the Mighty Nein sat in the fortress of the Dynasty in a cold, barren room. It felt fitting, seeing as their souls right now were just that. They sat in a quiet huddle, clinging on to each other for warmth, their breath visible in the air. Their fire had gone out, and there was nothing left to rekindle the love and sense of home that he had brought to them. Since the moment they’d realised his body was damaged beyond repair, a heavy grief had fallen upon them. Not a word had been said unless it was necessitated. At least it had been that way…
‘That stupid, self-sacrificing, piece-of-shit bastard!’. Beau punched the floor, hitting hard enough to break skin. Startled out of their reverie, the Nein looked to her. Yasha, stoic in her grief, placed an arm around her gently squeezing her shoulder. That motion, so similar to that of Caleb when he leaned on her for support, broke something inside of Beau. Suddenly great racking sobs filled the room as she collapsed into Yasha, shaking as the tears ran like a never-ending river. Yasha simply sat stroking her hair, while her own tears fell silently to the ground.
‘Why? Why did it have to be him?’, Veth whispered, her usual brashness and energy gone. ‘He’d worked so hard to finally have a chance of living in the present and making a future for himself. To learn to love again and have hope for himself’ Her voice grew louder and shriller as her grief and energy exploded, not even trying to hold back the tears streaming down her face ‘He deserved to have that chance, and now he’ll never have it.’
‘He knew what this fight could lead to, we all did. Any one of us could have gone down, and willingly too. This was about more than us, it had to be. He’d be happy knowing you survived and can go back to your family’. Fjord looked to the halfling reassuringly, or at least attempted to. Truthfully, he felt like shit right now, but that could come later. Right now, his family needed him and he was determined not to fail them like he had Caleb. Veth didn’t look convinced though, so clearly he wasn’t doing very well at that. Sniffles next to him alerted him to the fact Veth wasn’t the only one in need of some reassurance though.
‘I should have prepared more healing spells, I should have tried to save my spell slots.’ Jester hiccupped through sobs, her hands clutching the hem of her skirt as she fiddled with it absentmindedly, ‘If I was a better cleric Caleb wouldn’t be gone right now and…’. Grabbing her hand and rubbing his thumb over hers, Fjord turned her head towards his. Catching her gaze he quietly said, ‘Jessie, you couldn’t have done anything. None of us knew he had gone down, everything was too hectic. We all were drained, not just you.’
‘He would never have blamed you for this’, Yasha spoke up, ‘He cared for you too much for him to even consider the idea’.
Caduceus, sending a knowing look to Yasha, agreed. ‘Mr. Caleb wouldn’t want you to think that way. You did everything you could but sometimes a soul is destined to pass on. His sacrifice saved the world’.
‘But it can’t be his time, surely there’s something we can do?’. Jester suddenly straightened and shouted out ‘Artie?!’. A few seconds passed.
‘Yes dear?’. Jester whipped around and Artagan was sat behind her in his brilliant emerald green cloak. He sat nonchalantly looking around the room, ‘I see you haven’t escaped this frozen hellscape yet. Honestly dear you can do much better.’.
‘Artie, we need your help’.
He raised an eyebrow. ‘Well I’ll certainly do my best, what do you need?’.
‘Caleb..’. Jester paused, trying to rein her emotions in. ‘Caleb is dead but I can’t revive him. Do you know any magic that can bring someone back even if there isn’t a body?’
A look of pity crossed the Archfey’s face. ‘Oh, Jester. There is but…’
Jester rushed over and grabbed his hands, excitement coursing through her,’ What is it? Can you teach it to me?’. The others perked up at this question. They couldn’t see Artagan but Jester’s sudden hope was evident.
‘I’m sorry Jester but no, you may be powerful but that is something you’re just not ready for.’
‘But I have to be’, she cried indignantly,’ I can’t give up on him, after all he’s done for us’.
‘It’s incredibly powerful magic and difficult to get the required components for it. I truly wish I could bring your wizard friend back but I’m afraid I can’t’. And he did look genuinely upset for her. Jester knew that look in his eyes, and it was that which broke her heart all over again.
‘Oh, ok’, slumping in on herself she looked at him with glistening eyes, ’thanks for coming anyway’.
‘Of course dear, if you need anything else just shout’, he smiled softly at her before teleporting away.
With Jester’s look of defeat silence fell across the room once more. Minutes passed before finally Beau broke it once again.
‘No I don’t accept this’.
‘Beau…’
‘Don’t you Beau me Fjord’, she turned to him with anger blazing in her red-rimmed eyes. ‘Me and Caleb had a pact to keep each other straight and you know what? Leaving us behind is a real dick move’.
‘It’s not like he chose to die Beau’.
‘The hell he didn’t. Do you know where we found him?’
Confused Veth piped up, ‘We found him on the site of a battle, what’s your point?’.
‘My point is that it happened to be within 30 feet of Lucien and Cree. He didn’t need to be that close and shouldn’t have been. The only reason I can think of is that he was trying to get them to focus on him.’
‘You can’t know that Beau, and even if he did we can’t do anything about it’, Yasha tried to placate her.
‘Yes we can’. Beau stood up and started to wildly gesticulate. Looking to Jester she asked ‘Artagan said there was magic that could help right?’
Sniffling Jester replied, ‘Yeah but he said I wasn’t able to do it yet’.
‘Well then, we just need to find someone who can’.
……
Caleb opened his eyes to darkness, flat on his back. The last thing he remembered was being hit with something. Was it a spell from Cree? Standing up he looked around his surroundings. Or at least attempted to, but the only thing he could see was pitch black. Then, all of a sudden, a figure of a man came into focus. He was small, but lithe, and the slightly pointed ears protruding out of long, raven-black hair suggested the man was a half-elf . Donned in black armour that was covered in black feathers, daggers hung on his belt and Caleb’s sharp eyes noted that his boots had a little heart carved into them. A strange addition but Caleb wasn’t going to judge. Besides the bone that jutted out from his shoulder, twisted into the shape of antlers, was distracting enough. The most eye-catching thing about him though was the white, porcelain mask that he wore. It almost seemed to produce its own light, a brilliant gleam that pierced the darkness. As he walked closer to Caleb he took the mask off slowly and deliberately. There was a smirk on his face as he looked Caleb over.
‘Well, I can see why My Lady was interested in you.’
My Lady? Scheisse. Caleb had seen Eodwulf pray enough to know who the half-elf was referring to. Finally his brain caught up to the predicament he was in.
‘I’m dead aren’t I. This is the Raven Queen’s realm’.
The man laughed. ‘Ordinarily I’d say yes. But this?’, suddenly he was holding a golden thread, ‘This tells me that you still have some connection to the Material Plane.’ He tugged on the thread and Caleb stumbled as he felt his whole body be pulled closer to the stranger. ‘What’s your name?’
Righting himself Caleb replied, ‘My name is Caleb. Caleb Widogast’
‘Well Caleb Widogast, my name is Vax and I’m going to do my best to figure out what the hell is going on.’